- fensterbau/frontale -

fensterbau/frontale 2014: The British Invasion

Spring 2014 offers from March 26-29 one of the world’s leading trade shows for the glass and glazing industry: fensterbau/frontale in Nuremberg, Germany. This year the fenestration experts from Great Britain are gearing up to join the international window crowd en masse.

Fensterbau/frontale has been the leading trade show in the world for windows, doors and facades for many years, with nearly 100,000 visitors having attended in 2012. Despite the existence of more than 4,000 window and door fabricating companies in the UK, only 364 British professionals visited the show that year. With a recovering economy and increasing exports, 2014 is set to be the year that the British join the world of fenestration in Nuremberg for fensterbau/frontale.

Project Manager for fensterbau/frontale Elke Harreiß summarised the internationality of the last event: “About 36 per cent of the trade visitors of fensterbau/frontale are international and they come to Nuremberg from 115 countries. They travel from all over Europe with large groups coming from Eastern Europe, especially Russia, but also from other continents. For anyone wanting to get to know the innovations of the world market in one compact place, there is simply no other option than to browse the display of products from the almost 800 fensterbau/frontale exhibitors in Nuremberg.”

Consequently the main representative trade organisation in the UK, the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF), has joined forces with fensterbau/frontale. Whilst working to impart first-hand current technical information to GGF Members and the wider industry, it makes perfect sense to be on site when all the key manufacturers launch their newest and most innovative products onto the market for the first time. Nigel Rees, GGF Group Executive commented, “As well as supporting GGF Members, our broad objectives at this event will be to impart our technical knowledge, create awareness of the Federation to an international audience and perhaps recruit new Members. If previous years are anything to go by, fensterbau/frontale 2014 promises to be a great success.”

The GGF will exhibit as part of the Building Centre’s UK Pavilion in hall 4A, which is supported by the government’s export authority UK Trade & Investment. The Building Centre is an independent forum dedicated to providing information and inspiration to all sectors of the built environment. The group also includes Purplex Marketing, GlazPart and Runners Sliding Door Systems.

Why have more UK companies become interested in fensterbau? Dean Bradley, Sales and Marketing Manager at Glazpart said: “Glazpart have over recent years slowly grown our business in Europe. The opportunity to exhibit at one of the key European fenestration exhibitions is a logical development of our strategy to grow our sales with major profile houses and extend our distributor network across Europe.”

Purplex is the first UK-based marketing company to exhibit at fensterbau/frontale. MD Andrew Scott said; “We live in an increasingly global market place and Purplex already has a number of international clients. We are now keen to expand on our success across Europe and other markets.”

The British window industry will be represented further on a number of stands throughout the 11 fensterbau/frontale halls. The VEKA UK Group will be flying the flag for British manufacturing in hall 6, giving visitors a 'sneak peek' at products which are yet to be unveiled to the industry. VEKA UK Sales and Marketing Director Colin Torley explains: “fensterbau is a superb platform for our products and is one of the premier events for our industry. It attracted nearly 100,000 visitors from 115 countries when it last took place, offering us a fantastic opportunity to showcase our UK products to the increasing number of UK visitors making the trip to this international event. The show is around twice as big as anything we have in Britain and allows exhibitors to promote to - and learn from - some of the world's biggest industry names.”

REHAU’s UK Chief Executive Martin Hitchin will be at fensterbau this year, further emphasising the continuing importance of the exhibition to the UK market. With an increasing number of UK fabricators now attending fensterbau to see the latest pan European technologies, REHAU is ensuring that they are welcomed by familiar and knowledgeable UK specialists. Martin Hitchin said: “Once again the focus of the whole REHAU stand will be on energy efficiency combined with style and aesthetics. We hope as many UK customers as possible will visit the show and be inspired not just by the products on display but by the sheer scale and ambition of the event.”

Business Micros Aluminium Managing Director Dean Hodges declared: “I was really impressed by the number of UK fenestration companies who attended fensterbau two years ago and I’m expecting even greater numbers this year. As a result we’re taking more staff from Business Micros Aluminium to welcome these visitors onto the Orgadata stand in hall 7A.”

Amongst leading machinery companies in hall 3A, elumatec will be launching four new products. Phil Heavey, managing director of elumatec UK said: “fensterbau is regarded as one of the world's leading trade fairs for windows, doors and facades, and is a key event in elumatec's calendar. As well as launching our new products we will be demonstrating a range of automated and semi-automated machines.”

Supplementing the vast range of products from the exhibiting companies, fensterbau/frontale will present a dynamic supporting programme again in 2014, with a variety of opportunities for gathering information and networking. Details on the presentation and event programme are online at www.frontale.de , where visitors can also find further information about exhibitors, hall plans, travel, accommodation and lots more.